Bitter Bargain: Word To A Friend
by Higuchimon
Summary: V-mon's nose is nearly as sharp as Agumon's. Daisuke didn't think about that. For that matter, neither did the Kaiser.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.  
 **Author:** Higuchimon  
 **Fandom:** Digimon Adventure 02  
 **Series Title:** Bitter Bargains|| **Story Title:** Word To A Friend  
 **Characters:** Daisuke, V-mon|| **Romance:** Referenced Ken x Daisuke  
 **Word Count:** chapter: 1,359|| **Chapters:** 1/1  
 **Genre:** Friendship, Drama|| **Rated:** G  
 **Challenge:** Diversity Writing, C37, start  & end with the same letter; Include The Word Boot Camp, #12, quiet; Digimon Partners Boot Camp, #39, concern; Advent 2015, day #23, start/add to a series; Easter Egg Basket Advent day #22, do a fic for one of your New Year's Resolutions; Monthly Restrict, write a story within a two-hour timespan.  
 **Challenge Location:** All challenges can be found at the Duel Monsters Writing Academy Forum on FFnet.  
 **Notes:** This takes place in the same world as **Give Me You** and takes place after Daisuke's first weekend with the Kaiser. I'd meant to write that weekend first, but then this idea hit me, and I just had to write it.  
 **Summary:** V-mon's nose is nearly as sharp as Agumon's. Daisuke didn't think about that. For that matter, neither did the Kaiser.

* * *

Something hung in the air, a scent. V-mon couldn't remember having smelled it before, which eliminated the possibility that Daisuke burned something while alone over the weekend.

Or maybe not so alone; there'd been that funny message about him having 'met someone' and 'wanting to spend time with them while he could'. That just didn't set right with V-mon and he'd wanted to ask Daisuke about it since the moment he'd heard about it.

"Daisuke?" He asked as he entered the kitchen area, where Daisuke half-drowsed over what V-mon guessed was supposed to be dinner. It would still be another day before his parents came home, so Daisuke cooked for them.

Though from the way he looked, V-mon kind of wondered if they were going to be ordering in.

"Daisuke!" He patted his partner's hand when Daisuke didn't show any signs of awareness. Daisuke jumped, almost knocking the pot off the stove, and blinked down at him.

"Huh? Oh… V-mon." He shook his head, running one hand through his hair. "Guess I sort of drowsed off." He peered into the pot with a careful eye. "Uh, so, where did you want to order from tonight?"

Daisuke wasn't the kind of chef that Yamato was by any means, but he generally paid enough attention to the food not to ruin it. Something was up.

"Whatever you want," V-mon told him. "Daisuke, are you all right?" He scratched the side of his head, trying to figure out how to say this. "You're a bit … I dunno, out there? Lately?"

Daisuke started over to where he'd left his phone, sacred repository of many phone numbers to restaurants that delivered, and stopped in his tracks, turning around to look at V-mon. "Out there?" He blinked, every bit as confused as V-mon himself. "Whaddya mean?"

"Well, you burnt dinner twice, and you haven't really said what you did while we were gone or who this person you met is, and there's this weird smell, mostly around the couch, and I don't know what it is, and are you really, really all right?" V-mon let it all rattle out of him, Daisuke's eyes getting rounder and rounder by the moment.

"Uh… well..." Daisuke fidgeted before he started to his phone again. "It's no one you know. None of you know him." He started to scroll through the numbers. "It's really nothing to worry about, either."

"I'm not worried," V-mon said, coming over. "I just was curious. I mean, that smell..." He fidgeted a bit again, trying to remember if he'd ever smelled anything like it before.

The more he thought about it, the more he began to think that he had, but never around here.

"Where is it?" Daisuke's voice came out tight and hard. "You said the couch?"

V-mon agreed with a quick nod of his head, and Daisuke took three quick steps, grabbed the pillow that the smell came off of the strongest, and threw it right into the washing machine.

"I knew I should've washed it a few more times," he muttered. V-mon didn't think he'd meant for him to hear him, either. But he did.

"Daisuke? Did something happen?" He thought he remembered where he'd smelled that scent before: in Taichi and Yamato's apartment, not too long after they'd moved in together. No one _said_ anything about it, but the other Digimon gave each other sort of knowing looks, and Takeru said something that V-mon still didn't understand, but which made Yamato blush and grumble at him.

He didn't know if this was the same thing or not, but the smell was the same, at least. Or pretty close to it.

"Nothing...nothing I didn't agree to," Daisuke said at last, staring at his phone's screen before he picked out a place and started to put in their usual order. V-mon stayed quiet, his eyes straying to the mark on Daisuke's neck.

It wasn't as clear as it had been when V-mon came back here, but he knew that he'd seen something like that on Taichi and Yamato as well, and a few of the other Chosen, usually those who were dating someone else. But it was still there.

"Does it have something to do with that?" He pointed and Daisuke clapped one hand to the bruise, flushing a brilliant red.

"I...I… I did… I did say I met someone?" He sounded more as if he hoped V-mon wouldn't continue the questioning and V-mon didn't know if he wanted to, not with how upset it was making him. But if something had happened to upset Daisuke, then he wanted to know what it was.

"Who?" He wasn't going to let Daisuke get away with just 'you don't know the person'. Not unless Daisuke really, _really_ didn't want him to know.

Instead, Daisuke slumped down on the couch and closed his eyes. He'd never seen his partner this down before.

"I agreed to it, but I didn't have a lot of choice," he murmured. V-mon moved in closer, one paw reaching to Daisuke's knee. "He had all of you surrounded. If I hadn't done what he wanted, if I don't _do_ what he wants with me, he would've ambushed you. We wouldn't have been able to get there in time. You all would've..."

He'd never, ever seen Daisuke look so genuinely _scared_. But he thought he could put some of this together anyway. There was really only one person who would do this.

"It was the Kaiser?"

Daisuke nodded. V-mon squared his shoulders and flexed his claws.

"Next time he shows up, I'm going to make him regret hurting you."

Daisuke's head snapped up quick as lightning. "V-mon, _no_." He groped for more words as V-mon stared at him. "I think...he didn't say, but I _think_ , that he watches you guys in the Digital World. And he knows when someone is on their own. He said… he said that he didn't care if I told anyone, but you can't try to hurt him. He wouldn't let _that_ slide." He shook his head. "It's all right, V-mon." The smile he dredged up wasn't all that impressive, but Daisuke tried. V-mon gave him a point for that. "Maybe… I don't know, maybe I can help him like this? Help him stop being… the Kaiser."

V-mon wasn't all that certain, but what he did know was that he didn't like his partner being hurt like this. Maybe it wasn't hurt like being in a fight, but it was hurt all the same, and the idea of not being able to do anything about it infuriated him.

Daisuke's phone beeped and he took a look at it. A heartbeat later, he paled and stiffened. "He wants me to come to him tonight," Daisuke murmured and sighed. "At least I've got time to eat."

Another beep, and Daisuke looked again, a frown between his eyes. He paled even more this time. "He wants… he wants you to come along. Says you can stay with Wormmon while we're… uh, busy." He traded the paling for a blush. V-mon thought he at least looked a little more alive like that. "V-mon..."

"It's all right." V-mon reassured his partner, drawing himself up a bit more. "I'll go. I want to make sure he's not hurting you." And he didn't think that he'd like what he did find out. This was the Kaiser. Whatever Daisuke said, whatever the _Kaiser_ said, it wasn't something V-mon could trust without the evidence of his own eyes.

Daisuke bit his lip as he put the phone down. "All right. If that's what you want. Just… just don't tell anyone else about this. Any of it." He shook his head and sighed. "I don't think any of them would like it."

As well they shouldn't, V-mon knew. But he nodded anyway. "I think you should tell them, though. Don't let _him_ tell them."

Daisuke just made a vague kind of noise, leaning back with one arm over his head. V-mon curled up next to him, hoping that dinner got there soon.

And wondering just what it would be like to spend a night at the Kaiser's.

 **The End**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


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